Just a few days after Rio Olympics officials tried to foist off the worst accommodations in the athletes’ village in Rio on the Australian Olympic contingent, 100 members of the team were forced to evacuate the building when a fire broke out in the structure.
They were outside for about 30 minutes, only to discover that when they were permitted to go back inside, someone had pilfered two laptop computers and some team shirts.
The fire was allegedly started by careless workers rushing to complete the facility and fix blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed electrical wiring. An unextinguished cigarette was believed to be responsible.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but it later came to light that the fire alarms in the building had been deactivated by workers, even though they were performing maintenance in the adjacent building and not working in the Australians’.
Shooter Warren Potent slept through the entire incident after he failed to respond to calls and people knocking on the door to alert him.
The stolen laptops belonged to a cycling official housed on the fifth floor and another from an office on the ground floor.
The Aussies would be wise to find a secure location to stash their medals for the duration, as they are tipped to make a record haul.
